County approves cost for training center

Jackson County Commissioners unanimously approved a final price of about $5.4 million for the county's long-planned Fire Training Center Monday.

About $600,000 in sales tax revenue, along with $5 million from a $40 million 2007 bond issue, will pay for the center.

The project, which was first proposed in 1996, will include a new fire station with classroom space, a burn building and a large parking lot that would enable the county's volunteer firefighters to practice driving fire engines. The project was originally slated to cost $6 million, but the final bids for construction of the center came in under budget.